


What to Get Your Boyfriend for Christmas

by AWriting



Series: Bucky and Pietro Do Things [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Bucky is a good boyfriend, Captain America: The Winter Soldier Compliant, Christmas Fluff, Christmas with the Avengers, Domestic Avengers, Drabble, Drabble Collection, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Not Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie) Compliant, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Romani Character, Traditions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-29
Updated: 2015-05-29
Packaged: 2018-04-01 21:12:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4034764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AWriting/pseuds/AWriting
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Webs_of_Eris said: "Maybe them celebrating Wanda and Pietro's holidays?"</p>
<p>Bucky tries to make the twins feel a little more at home for the holidays.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What to Get Your Boyfriend for Christmas

**Author's Note:**

  * For [EmeraldDreams](https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmeraldDreams/gifts).



> So here is my first drabble for this series. Web_of_Eris' suggestion really intrigued me and when I started researching, I got the idea for this! I hope you like it!  
> All the information about Romani culture was found online. I mainly used this website: http://romove.radio.cz/en/clanek/18804 which talks about specifically Romani in the Czech Republic. So I'm just assuming that the Sokovian Roma are similar to the Czech Roma.  
> If any of the information within the fic is incorrect, someone please let me know!

Bucky remembered loving Christmas before the war. He lived for this shit. The singing, the lights, the trees, the snow. And having an excuse to spend a little extra money on his ma and sister and Stevie even though things were tight and he had to work extra hours to do it. It was worth it to see the looks on their faces when he gave them that pretty cloth for a new dress or that delicious cake from that expensive bakery downtown or that new set of drawing pencils. And it was the only time of year they'd let him do it because it was Christmas. 

That first Christmas after moving into the tower, he didn't really know what to do with it. Everyone he knew had everything they could possibly need or want. He didn't know how to do this type of Christmas. 

For most of the month of December, he just watched everyone do their usual Christmas things. It seemed like each person in the tower had their own little traditions when it came to celebrating Christmas and Bucky was wishing he had his own. 

About a week before Christmas, Bucky was cuddling with Pietro on the twins' couch in their apartment watching a Christmas movie where a grown man went wandering around New York City in an elf costume. Apparently, Pietro loved it. About halfway through the movie, Bucky saw Wanda take a plate of bread and chicken over to the corner of the room and set it down, leaving the plate there. 

"What are you doing?" Bucky asked. 

Wanda glanced at the food and then back at Bucky. 

"It's for the _mule_ ," she said and then disappeared into her bedroom. 

Bucky turned to Pietro with a questioning look. Was this like a milk and cookies for Santa thing? He was pretty sure Santa didn't appear through the wall. 

Pietro smiled at his confused expression and took pity on him. "The _mule_ are the souls of our dead ancestors," he said. "It is part of our culture to leave them food in remembrance of them during Christmas. Also, so they won't haunt us in the new year."

"Oh," Bucky said and blinked a few times, sorting the new information. Not exactly Santa. 

"Our people take the dead very seriously," Pietro told him with a small smile. "Christmas is a time for remembering them."

Understanding dawned in Bucky's brain. There was something he had noticed over the last few weeks. "Is that why you've been talking about your parents so much more lately?"

Pietro nodded, his eyes suddenly very far away. "Yes, this is one of our customs. Wanda misses Sokovia. As do I. In this time of year even more than normal. Our mother loved Christmas and there is so little here that reminds us of Christmas with her. My sister is trying to make this feel more like home." Then he smiled and leaned over to press a kiss to Bucky's cheek. "Perhaps you can use this time to remember the friends from your past too."

Bucky liked that idea. But the conversation had also given him another idea. Maybe it was time he put all those things Steve had taught him about the Internet and Google to good use. 

Over the next week, he spent a lot of time researching. He taught himself how to say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year in Romani. He made sure to listen intently when Wanda or Pietro brought up their parents. And he set in motion a few other Romani traditions in the tower. 

The hardest one was convincing the tower's residents to fast on Christmas Eve. Tony whined, saying Christmas Eve was meant for eating candy and getting drunk on egg nog. But after a solid lecture about making people feel welcome from Pepper and the promise of a massive feast after sundown, he gave in. 

Bucky looked up recipes for traditional Romani foods and learned how to make them though they were very hard to find and he had no idea if he was making them correctly. And he encouraged everyone else to bring dishes to the feast that were traditional to their heritage or their families. He wanted to make sure everyone felt at home, after all. Not just the twins. 

He didn't tell Wanda or Pietro any of this, though he was pretty sure Wanda knew something was up. It was basically impossible to keep anything from that girl. 

On Christmas Eve, he gathered everyone on the couches in the rec room a few hours before sundown, explaining to everyone that, in addition to fasting, the Romani used Christmas Eve as a time for forgiveness, reconciliation, and the strengthening of bonds within their community as well as spreading best wishes for the new year. The latter part, he had read, was usually done on Christmas Day, but he had made a deal with everyone that if they joined in on Christmas Eve, they could go about their usual traditions on Christmas Day. 

He got JARVIS to tell Wanda and Pietro that they were needed in the rec room once everyone seemed to understand what they were doing there. Though they still looked at him weird when he put the food in the corner and Tony asked why the dead spirits could eat but he couldn't. When the twins arrived, Wanda had a knowing smile on her face and when she looked at Bucky, her eyes shone with gratitude. Pietro just looked confused. As far as he knew, the team had made no plans to gather for Christmas activities. 

"What is happening?" The speedster asked as he sauntered into the room. 

"We're humoring your crazy boyfriend. What does it look like?" Tony quipped only to receive a sharp elbow in the stomach from Pepper and a slap to the back of his head from Steve at the same time. 

"We have gathered to honor your people's way of life at the behest of friend Barnes," Thor boomed with a bright smile. 

Pietro's eyes widened and he swung his gaze to Bucky who couldn't help the blush that rose to his cheeks under his boyfriend's scrutiny. 

Bucky shrugged and gave him a shy smile. "I wanted to make the tower feel more like home."

The look on Pietro's face reminded him of exactly why he loved Christmas so much. 

After that, he let Wanda take the reins. While the Internet had been able to tell him about Christmas being a time for "forgiveness, reconciliation, and strengthening the bonds in the community," he didn't really know what that meant.   

It seemed to mostly mean spending time together. They talked a lot about what had happened in the past year, the good things and the bad. There was a bit of reconciliation, much to Bucky's surprise. Steve and Tony had a moment. It was touching. Sam looked utterly smug as he led the two through an honest talk. 

Bucky just watched everything from the side with a smile on his face and his arm wrapped around Pietro who snuggled into his side and randomly pressed kisses to his hand or cheek or shoulder. He knew this probably wasn’t exactly what the twins remembered for back home, but he hoped it was close.

Once the sun went down, everyone moved into the kitchen for the feast. Tony practically ran. 

But Pietro grabbed onto his hand and held him back until the last person left. Who happened to be Wanda and who gave them a cheeky grin before disappearing through the door. 

When it closed behind her, Pietro tugged him close and wrapped both arms around his waist. 

" _baxtalo kre_ _č_ _uno_ , Pietro," Bucky said and leaned his forehead against his boyfriend's. 

Pietro's grin would've put a thousand suns to shame. "You are amazing," he said, his voice gravelly and low with emotion. "You did not have to do this for me."

Bucky shrugged, brushing it off. "Wanted to."

Pietro kissed him then. Soft and slow and full of love. 

"I must warn you," Pietro said when he pulled away. "Your gift is not this good."

Gathering in the rec room on Christmas Eve to "strengthen their bonds" caught on and became a tradition for the Avengers for many years. 

**Author's Note:**

> baxtalo krečuno means merry christmas (according to the internet)  
> mule is a word that refers (according to the internet) to the spirits of dead ancestors (as Pietro says).  
> Again, if any of the traditions or vocab within this fic is misinterpreted or described wrong, please let me know!  
> Subscribe to my series if you want to read more!  
> If you have a prompt in mind for this pairing, feel free to comment here or you can leave it in my ask box on tumblr (alyssareading.tumblr.com)  
> Feedback is always appreciated!


End file.
